a sales snapshot

Some writers hate, hate, hate the business side of self-publishing. I don’t! Because if you understand the business side, it can give you the freedom and control to write what you like, which is why I’m finishing up the nineteenth Caina book for release next month.

Nineteen! How many other book series go that long? Some do, but not that many.

(And thanks for reading all eighteen of the previous ones!)

Anyway, I write and publish a lot, but in April 2017 I didn’t publish anything because I spent the entirety of my writing time for the month finishing up FROSTBORN: THE SHADOW PRISON. So I was really curious to see how the ebook sales would break down without anything new in the mix, because (usually) a new book sells better than anything else.

So, here is how my ebook sales broke down by platform in April 2017:

Amazon US: 39.3%

Amazon UK: 29.8%

Google Play: 17.7%

Kobo: 8%

Amazon AU: 4%

Barnes & Noble: 3%

iTunes: 2.4%

Amazon All Other Countries: 1.7%

Occasionally other writers ask why I don’t have any books in Kindle Unlimited. Based on the percentages above, the answer is because 25% of my book sales are on non-Amazon platforms, and I highly doubt I would be able to generate enough page reads in Kindle Unlimited to make up for that.

Which of my series sold the best?

Frostborn: 58.2%

The Ghosts/Ghost Exile: 13.1%

Demonsouled/Mask of the Demonsouled: 12%

Cloak Games: 9.9%

The Third Soul/Tech Books: 6.8%

FROSTBORN is still the big fish, but what’s interesting is that CLOAK GAMES is now punching above its weight, much like Nadia Moran herself. Like, there are seventeen GHOSTS novels for sale, and nine DEMONSOULED (the first in both series are free), but only six CLOAK GAMES books for sale, and CLOAK GAMES is only a few percentage points behind the longer series. I think that shows that making the first book in a series permafree is still a good sales tactic.

Anyway, I think in June I’ll do another post like this for May, since FROSTBORN: THE SHADOW PRISON came out in May, and it sold really well. (Thanks everyone!) It will be interesting to compare April and May.

-JM